Birth of Israel

Ninety-five years ago, on November 2 1917, British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour wrote his famous letter to Lord Rothschild, expressing the support of the government for the “establishment in Palestine of a National Home for the Jewish people”.

Travel guide Lonely Planet has named the Negev desert as one of its top destinations of the year.

The Negev, which covers most of southern Israel, appears in second place on its annual list of ten top regions to visit. The desert area is in the company of Corsica, in France, Mustang in Nepal and the Palawan archipelago in the Philippines.

There are plenty of Jews in the upper echelons of the Conservative party but none of them were tempted this week to follow Ed Miliband's example and share their family histories with the nation. I was hoping we might get into a "my roots are better than your roots" contest, but it was not to be.

Sixty-six years ago, Miriam Issacaroff made an urgent call to her siblings in Tel Aviv, telling them she was sending her parents from Jerusalem to stay with them, asking them to keep them safe because "something big" was about to happen in the city.

Yitzhak Shamir was the accidental prime minister. When Menachem Begin resigned in 1983, the mantle of responsibility fell on Shamir's shoulders. The colourless, uninspiring, 68-year-old was the stop-gap choice instead of the feared Ariel Sharon and the lightweight David Levy.